Ubehebe Crater, Death Valley Junction

Ubehebe Crater is a large volcanic crater of the Ubehebe Craters volcanic field in the northern half of Death Valley, in Death Valley National Park, California, USA.GeographyUbehebe Crater is located at the north tip of the Cottonwood Mountains. The crater is half a mile wide and 500 to 777 feet deep. The age of the crater is estimated from 2,000 to 7,000 years old.In 2012, new evidence suggested that the crater may be as young as 800 years old, although this estimation was a lower bound, and it's still possible the crater is much older than that.GeologyThe crater was formed when magma migrated close to the surface and the heat of the magma caused groundwater to flash into steam, throwing large quantities of pulverized old rock and new magma across the stony alluvial fan draped across the valley floor. The magma rose through a fault that lies along the western base of Tin Mountain. Movement on this fault was responsible for uplift of the entire Cottonwood Mountains range.EruptionsThe resulting large steam explosions are called a hydrovolcanic or phreatic eruption by geologists and the pits created are known as maars. Ubehebe was the last and largest in series of similar eruptions in the immediate area (its eruption exceeded the tensile strength of the bedrock by 10 times). Earlier eruptions created a group of much shallower maars to the south and another to the west. Little Hebe is a spatter cone that grew in the middle of one of the largest maars in the south group. The only significant deposit of lava in the volcanic field is contained in Little Hebe.

We stopped by the crater on our way to visit the Racetrack. Ubehebe is the last stop on the paved road - so getting there is no problem. It is about 60 miles from Furnace Creek (1.5 hours drive time)....
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By TangueraSFOn December 31, 2017

It said it could be as young as 800 years old, WOW, what a show the large steam exploration has done. And their stage was decorated with sediments stripes. Beautiful! And it could happen again, who kn...
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By Christopher AOn December 18, 2017

Ubehebe Crater was one of the most fascinating things to see in Death Valley. It's a about an hours drive from the Visitor's Center, but well worth the drive.
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